To Buy A Mockingbird
by Laume
Summary: All Fluff is deliberate and purely intentional. AD and SS, fatherson, no slash. COMPLETE


A/N This story is especially written for Rosaleen, who encouraged me to continue writing 'fluff'. The fluffiness might get to a pukish kinda level to those who are less into it; don't say I didn't warn you!

A/N: story is sort of a companion story to Crashing Curses. It takes place a few months prior to that. Completely AU, of course, but I'm holding on tight to my denial…

Disclaimer: Hush little reader, don't say a word, Rowling still owns the Harry Potter world…

Fairy Tales and Lullabies

It was a very dark evening when a lonely figure walked the road that connected Hogsmeade to the school grounds. Walking was a bit of an exaggeration. Dragging was more like it. Severus groaned as he nearly stumbled on the stairs. Bloody castle. At least someone could have enchanted a muggle elevator, couldn't they? But no, the castle insisted on being full of stairs. Stairs he had no chance of either climbing or descending. Maybe he could just collapse in his chair on the staff table in the Great Hall. Would save him the trouble of getting up for breakfast too.

Lost in thought, he didn't notice the figure pacing the Entrance Hall until firm hands grabbed him and encouraged him to lean on the figure. Humph. White beard and ridiculously colored robe. Albus. Wearing a pair of fluffy troll feet for slippers. To his exhausted brain, wearing fuzzy slippers shaped like trolls feet suddenly seemed the most normal thing in the world for a headmaster to do. "Need some help getting to my rooms, father," he managed. A snort. A snort? From the respected headmaster of Hogwarts? He looked up with a very tired sneer. "No way you are going to your rooms, child, I'm taking you up to the tower. I need to see how badly you are hurt." Severus sighed, torn between being annoyed over being babied and being happy for being…well, babied.

With the headmasters help he managed the stairs and sat down on the couch in Dumbledores office. "Not hurt much, father, just very tired. Few bruises, is all." Dumbledore looked sceptical. Seeing he wasn't going to escape inspection, Severus allowed himself to be taken to the bathroom for a quick look over and a shower. "Few bruises, he says," the headmaster mumbled as he inspected the large black and blue areas on his sons torso. Taking out some ointment, he treated the bruises and watched them fade. Then he bustled his son into the bedroom, gave him some clean sleepclothes and pushed him in, stuffing pillows around him and covering him with an extra blanket. He slipped in himself too, wanting an early night. Severus yawned, tried to glare as Dumbledore pulled up his covers a little more but gave in quickly.

Lying comfortably in bed, he watched his father read some obscure book called the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. He wondered about that. Lion, ok. Witch was probably a Gryffindor then. But what on earth did the wardrobe have to do with them? And what would its sequel be called? The Snake, the Wizard and the Dressoir? Dumbledore saw his face and smiled. "Never read muggle childrens books, Severus?" He shook his head. "Never read childrens books at all, wasn't allowed to," he admitted. "What, no fairy tales? No Damian and the Dancing Dragon? Those books were great, the dragon really danced and blew fire from the page, cold fire of course…"

Severus shrugged. "Dunno what fairy tales are, but no, never read a book about dancing dragons." Dumbledore looked shocked. "Don't know what a fairy tale is?" he reached besides the bed in the massive pile of books that cluttered the floor there and pulled out a large one. "Come, I'll read you one." Severus eyes opened wide. "Dad, I'm nearly 40," he whined. "Exactly. This is long overdue. Scoot over so you can see the pictures. This one is called The Brave Little Tailor." Curious despite himself, Severus sat up next to the headmaster and watched the moving pictures while Albus read him the story of the clever tailor, who tricked some (admittedly rather stupid) giants and got to marry the princess. "Should have been Slytherin, that one," Severus grumbled at the end of the story. Albus chuckled. "Probably. Its a muggle fairy tale, though, I've just enchanted the book. It has some songs and lullabies too."

Severus looked at the pictures accompanying the lullabies. "Now this doesn't look like a comforting bedtime story to me," he said, pointing at the picture of a cradle falling from the top of a tree, baby still in it. "That is Rock A Bye Baby, possibly the most wellknown lullaby of both muggle and magical world."

Severus nodded. "And this one?" he asked, pointing to a succession of items including a bird and a ring with a large diamond on it. He didn't see the look Albus cast him, a look that was both amused at having succeeded in getting him interested in children's stuff and sad because he so clearly didn't know any of the songs or stories parents teach their small children all over the world.

He began singing softly, pulling his sons head against his chest to listen.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word, Daddy's gonna buy you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird don't sing, Daddy's gonna buy you a diamond ring…"

For the first time in his entire life, Severus fell asleep peacefully with the gentle tones of a lullaby in his ears. Dumbledore sat stroking the soft black hair for a very long time after his son had drifted off into sleep, contemplating what he would like to do to the Snapes if he had them here right now. With a grim smile on his face, he too closed his eyes and sought Morpheus' embrace


End file.
